Music industry exposed and how it caused its destruction.

Hmmm. A lot of thoughts percolating. This will be a mess, so apologies ahead of time.

I remember the head of FX, John Landgraf, talking about how 20% of TV consumption is active, meaning something the user seeks out or picks a program specifically, and 80% is passive AKA watching "whatever's on." As a 90s kid that was very excited about the internet's potential, the aggregation and monopolization that has occurred has made it apparent to me that we're at the mercy of a faceless mass choosing convenience above significance. Sometimes that includes any of us. I know I absolutely appreciate shopping via Amazon vs. pissing away a few hours at the grocery store or Home Depot. To me, for meaningless things, that's progress. And I guess I accept that people who don't obsess over music view it that way too. Ironically, Jeff Bezos recently said efficiency and invention are at odds with each other. And he's dead on. The mainstream is just not going to take risks, they want certainty. And they have metrics to know where to put their money. Young, ITB-made, plastic stuff that is simple enough for a global audience to grasp. Go to Southeast Asia and you're gonna hear that two note Ed Sheeran song a million times. Even a singer like Adele could probably make more interesting records than she does, but her balladeering is starkly unadorned because it needs to be as un-specific as possible in presenting what is usually a timeless sentiment. These are business decisions.

I'd take issue with the notion that there are virtually no new classic albums, but my guess is that, in aggregate, this place is not inclined towards the genres where I think those classics have been made. Moreover, making music is a beautiful thing. But making money on music has always been a tall order. And frankly, I'll probably catch some heat for this, but I love seeing AI take out the middling graphic designers / artists in the visual realm and I don't mind that it's coming for that tier of musician as well. It's not that I don't think they shouldn't make art. Creation is one of the greatest, most freeing things we do. It's just that getting paid requires you to offer something competitive and the middle is a lot of noise for both the audience and the ones operating at a higher level. So if you want a better paycheck, get better at what you do - world class if you can. Pino Palladino will always work. Chris Dave will always work. Blake Mills, Flying Lotus, Greg Kurstin, etc. They earned that. None of them are accidents. And if there are unknown guys on their level, they're likely missing a big piece of the puzzle somewhere, whether it's the energy to network/share, playing on sub-optimal records, bad health or whatever.

In this time, the best thing you can do is be authentic to yourself and uncompromising in your vision - and execute it all as well as you can. If you win, whatever that means, you did it on your terms. If not, you knew the odds were crazy anyway. Taylor Swift's billion dollar tour should've been 20 $50 million tours in a healthier environment. Or maybe 20 $150 million tours. Who knows. But talking about Taylor Swift is like discussing McDonald's when opening your nice restaurant. The intent is different from the get-go - I don't know why people let it consume them so much. It's not for you. These days you want to serve your fans well and make it seem like they matter to you. And the best result is to make those faceless masses feel like they're missing something, that some secret in your work is not being revealed to them. Leverage tribalism for your own benefit. Your fans are your tribe, do right by them and execute at higher and higher levels for yourself and them. I sort of like that the next Led Zeppelin has to put more effort into maintaining a connection with their fans as opposed to pissing away time in the countryside mansion. Personally, I find it more honorable and less transactional.

There are people who are millionaires simply because they have a beautiful face, nice curves, etc. and shake their ass on IG all the way to a 2.5M dollar, Toll Brothers cookie cutter house. I'm sorry but you can cry all you want but that's the lizard brain taking over and it's always been that way. We are just getting a front row seat to the mechanics of that process now across a number of domains, including news, sports, food, etc. How many grown 40+ men are subsidizing the lifestyles of young formerly desperate women everywhere? The simp economy is massive, even bigger than my cynical mind could ever imagine. And the same thing happens with hooky brainless pop. It's like being mad that an owl eats a mouse when we are confronted with the reality of passivity and addiction.

What a blessing we get to pay Spotify et al 30 cents of every dollar made for using my music without my consent.

I don't want to "like" this, because I actually hate it -- but it's true all too often. Music is no longer the center of youth culture.

What a blessing we get to pay Spotify et al 30 cents of every dollar made for using my music without my consent.

I think this has been echoed elsewhere here, but a recent book on the '60s music boom in London talked about how much of it was possible because so many musicians could make a living just playing a handful of gigs a week.

Right now, I don't know anyone personally in the Austin scene who's making a living from playing live in town. Some supplemental income, sure, but that's it.

"Especially music that push degenerate values on the youth is to be despised and avoided."

Story time: When my parents were children, their families burned their record collections in front of them. The reason given: they believed these songs were pushing degeneracy onto the youth. 25 years later when my wife was a child, her mother threw out all of her records and tapes for the same reason. It wasn't the Beatles or the Stones this time, but instead the nightmarishly degenerate INXS and The Cars and Janet Jackson. The principal at my junior high inadvertently introduced me to Slayer when he would play their records in our chapel to point out the evil lyrics and 'demonic frequencies.' He'd slide the Beatles and Zeppelin records into the mix to point out how long this spiritual warfare had been going on. Music & art didn't change; people didn't change. It's always like this. 

"Especially music that push degenerate values on the youth is to be despised and avoided."

Story time: When my parents were children, their families burned their record collections in front of them. The reason given: they believed these songs were pushing degeneracy onto the youth. 25 years later when my wife was a child, her mother threw out all of her records and tapes for the same reason. It wasn't the Beatles or the Stones this time, but instead the nightmarishly degenerate INXS and The Cars and Janet Jackson. The principal at my junior high inadvertently introduced me to Slayer when he would play their records in our chapel to point out the evil lyrics and 'demonic frequencies.' He'd slide the Beatles and Zeppelin records into the mix to point out how long this spiritual warfare had been going on. Music & art didn't change; people didn't change. It's always like this.